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Khaleda’s Barapukuria graft case indictment hearing June 19

  • Published at 02:04 pm May 16th, 2019
Web_Khaleda-Zia-BNP
File photo of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia Mehedi Hasan/Dhaka Tribune

The jail authorities failed to produce Khaleda before the court

A Dhaka court has set June 19 to hold a hearing—on charge framing in the Barapukuria coal mine graft case—against BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and others.

The hearing was supposed to take place on Thursday at the newly-constructed court building in front of Keraniganj Central Hospital, reports BSS.

However, Judge AHM Ruhul Imran of Dhaka Special Judge Court 2 deferred the hearing as the prime accused Khaleda is undergoing treatment at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and jail authorities failed to produce her before the court.

The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) on February 26, 2008, filed the graft case against Khaleda Zia and 15 others with Shahbagh police station in Dhaka.

They were accused of causing a loss of Tk159 crore to the state exchequer by awarding a contract for operating Barapukuria coalmine to a Chinese company.

Of the 16, six have already died and their names are expected to be dropped from the case the charges are framed.

The High Court, on February 25, 2019, ordered the lower court concerned to dispose of the case within six months.

A High Court division bench—comprising Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice KM Hafizul Alam—passed the order, binning a plea filed by one of the accused and BNP leader Barrister Aminul Haque to nullify the charges.